Hemorrhagic Fever Breaks Out in Bolivia

Hemorrhagic Fever Breaks Out in Bolivia



March 2007 - Deadly hemorrhagic 
fever has broken out in Bolivia, which continues to be 
severely affected by extreme El Nino weather conditions. Heavy 
rains beginning in December 2006 and continuing have caused 
major rivers to overflow, leaving 51 people dead and six 
people missing. Over 400,000 people have been affected. 
The Mamuja community in Beni Province, 22 kilometers from 
Magdalena, has been quarantined because of an outbreak of 
hemorrhagic fever, according to Dr. Juan Alberto Nogales, 
local Health Vice-minister. 
Dr. Nogales told "Los Tiempos" newspaper that two weeks ago, 
three people, a veterinary student and two others, found a 
mouse nest, and for unknown reasons they killed the mice with 
a knife. 
Soon afterwards, these three people used the same knife, 
without properly cleaning it, to cut lemons from a tree, and 
they drank the juice from those lemons. The health officer 
said that two of these people died because of this febrile 
illness, and the surviving third one lived to tell the story. 
As a consequence, the community has been quarantined, the 
entry of persons is tightly controlled, the area has been 
surrounded with 3,000 mouse traps, and a rodenticide poison is 
being used to kill mice, which are known to be the agents of 
transmission of this fatal disease. 
The Calomys callosus mouse spreads Bolivian hemmorhagic fever. 

The disease, caused by the Machupo virus, is spread by the 
Calomys callosus mouse, particularly by the rodent's urine. 
The incubation period for Bolivian hemorrhagic fever in humans 
is 14 days on average, and the case mortality rates reported 
are between five to 30 percent. 
This is the third quarantine period declared in Bolivia in the 
past 50 years due to hemorrhagic fever. San Joaquin community, 
near Magdalena, was quarantined in 1958, while in 1971, Viedma 
Hospital in Cochabamba was closed because of the occurrence of 
this disease. 
Elsewhere in the country, there is ongoing high risk for 
epidemic outbreaks because of floods caused by the El Nino 
weather phenomenon. Health authorities have intensified 
actions to control dengue fever, yellow fever, malaria, and 
hantaviruses, as well as hemorrhagic fever. 
The Bolivian Ministry of Health and Sports with the support of 
the Armed Forces and disaster experts from Cuba and Venezuela, 
has started a campaign of medical assistance to prevent 
infectious diseases. 
Minister of Health Nila Heredia said the greatest worries, 
besides hemorrhagic fever, are the risk of increasing malaria, 
tetanus carried by dead cattle floating in water, and the 
Aedes Aegypti mosquito that transmits dengue fever. 
Bolivian Health Minister Nila Heredia 
The country remains under a National State of Emergency 
declared on January 18. 
Floods have so far caused the most destruction. Most of the 
municipalities and towns in several departments in Beni and 
provinces in Cochabamba are completely flooded. Flooding has 
resulted in landslides and obstructed roads, isolating some 
rural communities that can now only be reached by boat. 
There is expected to be further flooding within the next few 
days. The National Meteorological Service of Bolivia predicts 
that moderate to heavy rains will continue through the coming 
week. 
Droughts and freezes in most of the provinces in the 
department of Oruro, Potosi and the north of La Paz have 
resulted in 9,000 families losing their harvests. 
The number of people affected is increasing as rivers continue 
to overflow in Bolivia’s worst floods in decades. The Beni 
regional government estimates that floodwaters will not recede 
for two months. 
In Beni, 40 percent of flood victims in the city of Trinidad 
are children living with their parents in provisional shelters 
set up in public schools or inhabiting tents on roadsides in 
outlying areas and rural communities. 
Flood-affected Bolivians are living in donated tents beside 
roadways. 
"The high percentage of girls and boys that are suffering from 
the floods in the city of Trinidad means that we need to 
concentrate our emergency response efforts on maintaining 
health, ensuring protection and promoting children’s return to 
classes," said UNICEF Bolivia Representative Gordon Jonathan 
Lewis during his visit to Trinidad earlier this month. 
Several United Nations agencies have rushed logistical 
assistance and humanitarian support to Bolivia. The UN World 
Health Organization and Pan American Health Organization are 
assisting the government in providing public health solutions 
and medicines, as the floods overlap with outbreaks of dengue 
fever, yellow fever and malaria in the country. 
Despite contributions made by countries such as China and 
nongovernmental organizations such as World Vision and the 
International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent 
Societies, Bolivia still needs tents, mosquito nets and 
medicine kits. 
U.S. government assistance in response to the severe flooding 
in Bolivia has now reached more than $1 million. 





 

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